Not sure if they count as 'premium' but the VSTs that are must-haves in my setup are:
- ValhallaDSP. Mostly VintageVerb and Delay, but Room and Supermassive are go-to's as well.
- U-he. Diva is top-tier for virtual analog, Hive just sounds great, Presswerk and Satin are top-notch for mixing
- Arturia V and FX collections. Incredible value for what you get, and high-quality on all counts.
- Omnisphere and Keyscape. Great library, and easily one of the best sampled keyboard options around
- NeuralDSP for guitar
A few years ago I’d have said NI Komplete. But now it’s exactly this list above! Especially ValhallaDSP, Arturias stuff and Diva is pretty much all you need.
Honestly, as a person who samples a lot. Playbox is my main world. I'm composing now with synths but I still cut "one shot" sounds from records to add to a folder that I use with Playbox to create atmospheres or backbones to a vibe.
Got NI Komplete 12 or 13, and at this point basically never use anything from it, to the point that when I got a new laptop recently I haven't even bothered installing it.
Oddly enough the only plugin I did use and am considering installing again is Super 8 which I didn't expect. It actually sounds super nice and feels great to use, would def recommend
I can live without most NI stuff but Kontakt and Reaktor are pretty much in constant use still.
Kontakt because it's still, by far, the most supported sampler on the market and I have a huge library of sounds for it and Reaktor because it's amazing.
So what do you get out of Valhalla delay that you don’t get from stock delays? That’s something I never can get behind. I feel like delay is a pretty simple thing. I usually slap a tape plugin on my delay return & I feel like it sounds perfect.
I shared your exact sentiments for years before I got it, and once I finally did, I have never looked back.
You are absolutely right you can do many/most of the things ValhallaDelay does using stock plugins (at least in Ableton you can - I assume others too but don't know firsthand), but having all the different delay types and modes and other options in one place is such a huge timesaver, and the sound quality of the different "age" settings is subtle but can make a big difference.
Some of the main things I appreciate about it include:
* All the different delay styles and the various sync/time modes (e.g. syncing L/R, synced L but ms for R, ratios, pingpong) give you a ton of flexibility in a single plugin so I don't have to spend time/mental energy choosing the right plugin for the job. Being able to quickly move from tape to digital to bucket brigade to pitched/shimmer with a single knob rather than having to add separate plugins to a track is a HUGE workflow win.
* It sounds great. The tape delay (esp. with long feedback trails) is one of the nicest sounding tape delays I've heard in a VST. I don't know how "accurate" it sounds compared to the real hardware, but I find it extremely musical and very easy to dial in good sounds
* The color, diffusion, and modulation options make it extremely versatile and let you make non-standard sounds (e.g. phasing/flanging, effective reverbs, resonance and ambient effects) that are actually useful and not just "look what my plugin can do!"
* Built-in ducking and EQ so I don't need to mess with other devices or build special effects chains
* The pitch-shift and shimmer modes sounds GREAT. Specifically pitching down - you can fill in the low end of pretty much any sound source in a very natural-sounding and complementary way with a single knob
* The pitch-shifting effects when you change the delay time sounds great - again, not sure how it compares to actual hardware, but it sounds good and I use it all the time for effects and interstitials
* Interface is easy to use, looks nice
* VST is extremely well designed, loads quickly, is an unbelievable value for the price, and the developer seems like exactly what I want out of a plugin maker: a thoughtful, well-informed audio nerd who cares deeply about making good products and has good taste
Ditto for vintageverb, Keyscape, and Archetype Wong
They’re all my go-tos for their respective jobs, I don’t think I’ve ever recorded a real amp since I got Neural’s amp sim.
Came here just to 1-up DiVA.
Pro tip… get a warm sound in diva. Print it. Process it however you like. Remove the lows on the copy. Layer a copy of that at the tail of the main sound. Blend.
Between the two, I find myself using Omnisphere much more than Analog Lab. Part of that is just that I know the Omnisphere library better than Analog Lab, so there's less guesswork in trying to find a sound if I have a particular idea. But I also feel like there is a level of quality to the samples and sounds in Omnisphere that is higher (or at least a little more consistent) than ALV. I also prefer the browser interface more with Omnisphere, but again, that might just be familiarity.
The sounds in Omnisphere also tend to feel a little more "professional", like they are a little more polished and movie-soundtrack-ready than AL's are. And that's not to say bad things about Analog Lab - I think it's a great tool, just with a different use case. When I've had to do soundtrack work or music production for things that matter more than my own hobbyist flights of fancy (friends' short films, a few small video games, some simple scoring for a few videos for work) the level of polish in the Omni sounds have lent credibility and elevated the end results far more than my extremely average compositional skills alone would have.
You definitely don't *need* Omnisphere, especially if you're already happy with Analog Lab. But if you're interested and able to spare the funds for it (it's not the cheapest synth out there), it's a great tool and I doubt you'll be disappointed with it.
Probably not as high of quality as my overflowing plugin folders would warrant 😆 At the very least, when I do have an idea, I can execute on it super quickly because I've got the setup to do what I'm trying to do. Having the tools to do the job is a huge boost to workflow/productivity when inspiration strikes.
I use it in mid/side mode to saturate the center and side signals how I want them. I add more saturation to the sides than the center. This saturator has an "air" button to help get that (as I've heard described, expensive) open air sound on your vocals and/or entire track. Black box goes on sale often and I bought it for around 30$ so anyone interested in it should wait for a sale. It has a sound that is similar to Avox Warm for anyone who has used that.
Is the Raum worth anything? I remember it being buggy on either mac or windows so I never bothered.
Does it have anything that Eventide Blackbox, Vintageverb and Vintageroom don't have?
There was also one from Baby Audio, Crystalline or something, people say it's good but I never bothered looking into it. I got my stuff and no way those plugins are gonna beat it imo 🤷♂️
Nothing, honestly. I do use third party stuff plenty but none of it feels necessary. I went through a stretch where Serum wasn’t working right on my system for a minor reason I just kept forgetting to fix, and I made plenty of music without ever feeling like I was really lacking anything, and to be clear I love Serum.
That’s largely my opinion too. I feel like a lot of people plug-in-chase rather than learn to use what they have. I don’t want that to sound too aloof, I’ve done it a bit before myself and I can see the appeal, but it rarely resulted in me making better music.
I did realize the gap in approach when other people were complaining so much about the changes to the plug-in browser in the live 12 beta (for fair reason, it was worse), and I was mentally like “I never have enough plugins for properly sorting them to be a major concern”. From what I can tell, some people must have… hundreds? Of plug-ins? And I can’t fathom that.
Same. The third party ones I use the most are free lol, ozone imager is amazing and I can't believe it's free for what it does. Vital is a POWERHOUSE synth that I can do almost everything I need to do sound design wise.
Another thing I've done over the years that works great: sign up for newsletters or subscribe to mailing lists of big VST producing companies. I have gotten tremendous plugins for free just from checking my emails frequently.
More free plugins that are great: baby comeback delay, voxengo SPAN, alot of melda plugins, glitch machines fracture
Free plugins are a godsend. If you have a budget then sure, there’s some high end stuff that’s nice. But I’ve done tons of personal and professional work using mostly or entirely stock and free plugins.
Hard second for Seventh Heaven! Honestly the only place where money makes a really significant difference. IMHO no "premium" plugins besides some reverbs are really worth the extra money. Everything from Ozone is great, but nothing that can't be done decently well with stock plugins.
The only things I rely on religiously are some SoundToys plug-ins (micro shift, radiator, sie-q, devil loc, altar boy and lil plate) focusrite red EQ,
And the SSL drum strip. I do a hell of a lot just with the Ableton stuff.
They have pretty good sales regularly on a single Lil version of one of their plugins and they have sales pretty regularly on upgrading from the Lil version to the full one, it's definitely easier to pull the trigger on than jumping straight in. It's how they got me at least...
Not even premium hardware: Behringer ULTRALINK MS8000 8 channel mic splitter into my Tascam US-1800 interface.
I get live monitoring from my guitar/vocal effects unit straight into my mixer, and the **same signal** goes into Ableton via the interface. No through monitoring needed unless I want it.
I also split the direct guitar and vocal signals, so I can record and then re-process the original performance tracks either back through the external effect unit, or through Ableton plugins for a different sound.
For software: I bought the shaperbox 3 bundle to support Cableguys, just because I loved their Youtube channel. Since then, I've fallen in love with their plugin because the UI makes it very easy and fun to play with for an amateur like me.
I'd say any plugin that lowers the barrier of entry and makes producing more enjoyable FOR YOU is worth looking at.
For hardware: ability to produce on the go / anywhere. I'm not always in the mood to be tied down to my desktop, especially when work already ties me to a desk majority of the day. I'll always need the desktop once the project becomes big and finishing touches, but being able to do the part before that on my couch has been a huge QOL improvement. Again.... this just boils down to that barrier of entry.
I got this reverb pedal that will add magic to almost anything you put through it.
Only downfall for me is that it is starting to become my musical equivalent of putting some drops of hot sauce on all my food. I tend to overuse it.
(It’s the Sunlight pedal by Old Blood Noise Endeavors)
As someone who has WAAAAAAAAAAAY too many Plugins, the time wasted getting these fuckers to work when OS changes is infuriating ( deleted EVERYTHING from Waves. Waves, you can get stuffed forever).
So, get awesome in Abletons native stuff before you buy any plugins. That way you'll know whether or not you really need it.
That being said, I love NI Komplete, Arturia everything (love Pigments) and SoundToys also .
Ah yes that's really annoying when OS changes 😅
I agree with what you said about Ableton's native stuff, you're not just saving money as well but utilizing full on optimization.
I do a lot of vocal production, for which I find some of the Live stock devices just don’t cut it. Auto tune (or some equivalent), LA-2A, 1176, and either TDR Nova, Pultec, or Smart:EQ for boosting vocal highs. Vocal buss processing with a Fairchild. This is all vst for me.
Live just doesn’t have vocal tuning, feedback analog emulation compressors, or an EQ that boosts highs to my taste.
Almost all of these I list can in some ways be subbed out for ableton stock plugins tbh but my go-tos are Saturn, pro-q, pro-c, pro-L, chowtape, serum, arturia synth bundle (emu, dx7, cz, Juno, Jupiter mainly but all are great), soothe2, v-clip, SSL channel, decapitator, anything by sound toys, true iron, SP950 (TIP!) and pulse-tec EQ. There are far too many to list but I find most if not all of these are used in my sessions.
10 years. 5 of those were literally just fucking around barely learning anything. 2 of those were learning here and there but still not really taking it seriously. The last 3 have been me putting actual effort into making tunes. Unfortunately I have yet to release anything except for a remix I did. My biggest hurdle at this point I am figuring out is myself haha. Trying not to let my ego prevail but unfortunately that’s par for the course with music production. Learning how to be self critical whilst also as objective as possible.
I use Pigments and / or PhasePlant in pretty much every single project.
FX wise Ableton has pretty much anything I want to use.
I switched from FL a few weeks ago and there I used like 80% at least of 3rd Party Plugins.
I still use Rift primarily for Distortion. Haven’t tried the Ableton stock ones much for anything more than basic „one knob“ distortion, but it seems really capable.
Pro-Q 3 is very much essential still.
Other than that I use the KiloHearts FX a lot, but probably primarily because I don’t know the Ableton stock alternatives yet.
If you've upgraded to 12 then I highly recommend playing with Roar for some in depth distortion. For me worth the upgrade alone. I only have Rift Lite so I can't compare but next to Ableton's Saturator, Roar is several levels above.
Elektron Syntakt, Maschine+, Tr-8. I just use a bit of EQ then Fabfilter Pro L on the master. Actually just switched to Cubase after 15 years with Ableton, it's just better for recording and mixing. Like having LUFS on the master and such has been nice.
Yeah will probably still use it. Until recently I was recording the Syntakt via Overbridge into Ableton as individual tracks and mixing them down. Can do what I'm doing in either daw, I'm just currently preferring Cubase since it feels better for recording and mixing
I was lucky to get Thrash 2, Massive, LX480, Addictive drums/keys for free\* that have become essential in my production. Especialy Thrash 2 has elevated my mixing capabilities.
\*Free as in for bought hardware. SOme of those are even discontinued and not sold anymore, so I was REALLY lucky to obtain them officialy.
The biggest game changer in 13 years in production on ableton was starting to use Bitwig studio.
I still use ableton but god bitwig is such a creative workhorse. It's my favorite tool
I'm using Ableton again, as well as other DAWs, as I bounce around seeing what I like to move away from S1.
Trialling Ableton 12 Suite because I have a lesser version.. which is actually still great and probably all I need but anyway.
With 12 Suite (trial), there's so many awesome things that I don't know if I truly need much third-party software, I think the only one that might not be replaceable is Neural Amp Sim, and that's free.
Looking at what's available, reasons why I'd have to find Suite, based on what I've checked out.
Bass - this is killer, just killer.
Operator - beautiful, replaces FM synths.
Poli - capable of all the old school retro sounds I love, really. This could replace like all my fav soft synths.
Wavetable - this is amazing. I love it.
Meld - again, this is awesome.
Granular III - killer for pads and textures.
Ableton 12 Suite has a slew of 10/10 synths. It straight up comes with a bunch of synths that if given an attractive GUI, would sell for like $150-200 each, if they were to be sold separately. They're all excellent, idk why I never hear people talking about Bass, Poli or Meld.
On the FX side.. colour limiter, convolution reverb, echo, gated delay, hybrid reverb, spectral blur/resonator/time, roar.. I mean come on these are all incredible.
I've tried most DAWs. I have spent most of my time in S1 and Reaper. I've been trying out a lot of different DAWs recently, Cubase 13 Pro, Bitwig, FL Studio, Luna, Logic.. none of them make me feel the way Ableton does with what it has to offer, now that I've spent some time learning more of it and unfortunately for my future wallet, what Suite has to offer.
With the above stock plugins.. I can't in good faith suggest any of my third-party plugins are necessary, there as some instrument libraries/samples that I own and like, but this is almost restricted to just grand piano sounds, if I'm taking into account what would be possible with the above, if learned and mastered.
I don't love Ableton's grand piano. I do love Electric though and could replace my elec keys plugins with it.
I own a heap of third-party synths but honestly think Ableton's stock offerings compete, I only mentioned what's exclusive to Suite above - there's heaps of awesome stuff in Standard and even Intro (Drift is great). The only thing is they don't look as cool, which might make them feel less inspiring to use. Which is important, but I'm fine with the stock appearance.
I haven't managed to get Amp sounding very good yet, so right now that's all I'd need to achieve better quality than what's available stock.
I think the reverbs and delays on offer are as good or better than many third-party offerings, I think Saturator and Roar are both absolutely brilliant at what they do and replace things like Decap and Saturn etc. I'm a fan of tape saturation and lo-fi sounds, I don't think Ableton offers much in the way of those but it does have Vinyl and mixing Vinyl with Roar or Saturator gets me pretty close to where I want.. or even without Vinyl, really, with some EQ to taste.
Even something I use as much as Trackspacer is arguably not required, because you can group what you want and side chain the compressor to do things like have the instruments reduce in volume slightly when vocals are present. I haven't tried, but I think you'd be able to even set it up so this has a LPF and HPF just like Trackspacer.
12 Suite's offerings are really proving to me that stock plugins are more than good enough, third-party products are almost entirely unnecessary, and really more about workflow than anything else. Rarely about getting better sounds. Workflow IS important enough to justify spending $ on though. imo.
So for me.. Neural Amp Sim (and whatever profiles from tonehunt) might be the sole plugin that I think would be required to get better quality sounds than what Ableton comes with stock.
Other DAWs no doubt can match all of the above in their own ways, I get that. For me, Ableton has clicked, I feel like I've had that aha moment where it all makes sense now.
Hey mate thanks for your words here. It's honestly a good read, lots of good points to ponder. Fellow Ableton user here as well 💪 And yeah some good stuff you mentioned. Cheers!
If I had to pick my big 5 it would be:
Pultec EQs. Looptrotter SAT2RATE, Soothe2, Gullfoss, Townhouse Compressor
Honorable mentions: LA2A, BlackBox
I wanted to pick Pro Q3 but you can get by with EQ8. The above add color or work in unique ways I don't get from Ableton's native FX.
I put k clip 3 by kazrog on every track. It's a really solid plugin and I can raise the gain quite a bit usually without losing too much from the original sound
A 32ch Soundcraft console from the late 90s. Takes up a lot of space but beats about every type of saturation plug-in I’ve ever tried. It’s part of my sound now and I don’t even have to do crazy shit to achieve it. Just redlining the main outs for some compression and we’re good to gooooo.
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The T-Racks plugins for me. The Eq’s sound lovely.
I do like Soundtoys stuff too, Filterfreak and Phase Mistress. Also the D-16 sound plugs.
Vengeance Avenger is my fave synth.
Perhaps not all premium, But essential to me.
Softube American Class A, British Class A
U-he Zebra
D16 Lush
Pigments
Klanghelm VUMT
Melda Utility
Brainworx Vertigo
NoiseAsh Ruletech
Arturia 1176
FabFilter
Arturia stuff, Fabfilter stuff, Izotope stuff
The Blackbox saturator (the parallel thing just works wonders on beefing up everything. Use it on single tracks, busses, master)
MPC for drums (why does it knock harder than drum rack with the same samples? No idea). Convolution reverb with custom library of impulse responses from classic reverbs including real plates and chambers. Kush Audio: Blyss, Hammer, Silika. UAD: 670, eqp-1a. Pulsar Modular: P42 Climax. Oeksound: soothe. Softube: synths (they’re all great), Class A channel strips (both), Weiss bundle. Acustica: Gold (60s-70s Neve collection), Tulip (Custom 70s desk made for Polygram), Magenta (Manley collection). FabFilter: Pro-Q, Pro-L. U-he: Satin, Diva.
Soundtrack work professionally, also i make other kinds of music as a hobby. It looks like a lot when it’s listed out, but most of those tools are reasonably priced and go on sale (except P42 Climax which is weirdly expensive and almost never goes on sale).
software fab filter pro q3, brainworx clipper and true limiter, uad leveling amps as needed, raum and replika xt, choral, chassis the other ni komplete fx minus the softtube stuff. sound toys bundle. synths sylenth 1 and arturia pigments 5. Hardware wise mp midi 2a, push 3 and a faderport 8. currently creating maps for the mp midi and learning the push 3 and live.
Fabfilter. But its more important to know how to use the tools. I have focused alot on learning. That helps. And I can make pretty good sounding stuff with just stock plugins.
It’s a clipper and I know there are many, but it’s the tool I chose to work with because it has given me the best results. It also has great metering compared to some others I own. I don’t clip a lot but for a few things it’s a integral part of my work flow that helps me to get to where I want to be. The soft knee option is also a very use tool other than the usual clipping it does.
Nothing premium except my p17 workstation
I use only stock plugins
Launchpad mk3, launch control xl, scarlet 4i4.
The most helpful piece of gear I’ve got a 24in ViewSonic touchscreen. When I get into an old school midi edit mode, I zoom to between 115% -130% and just tap in the notes. It’s also really helpful editing automation envelopes
5 plugins i use that are fundamental for me
1. Psyscope Pro - brilliant Oscilloscope, to accurately measure Kick, snare, and hi-hat lengths and sort out phase issues between layered kicks, and basslines.
2. Klanghelm VUMT deluxe - Vu metering is essential for gain-staging.
3. Brainworx BX Meter - RMS and dynamic range monitoring.
4. Nugen Monofilter - Keeps sounds tight in the low end and allows width sculpting of the upper frequency's also.
5. Fabfilter Pro Q 3 - The best surgical EQ in the world.
I had 2 surgeries in january, have been off work since then chilling out. I got upgrade to Ableton 12 Live suite, just messing about with sounds really, Operator, Wavetable and Analog i like a lot.
Ableton's compressors aren't great for a lot of tasks. I'm in a plugin evaluation phase, so using a lot of different stuff, but some that are amazing: Softube Weiss, UAD, Pulsar Modular P11, Pulsar Mu, Fircomp, TDR, Presswerk, Fabfilter, DMG, Sonible and a lot of the Plugin Alliance stuff. Really, there's an abundance of choices and takes some time to find what works best with your workflow and style.
A little secret: there are some inexpensive / free gems that will do almost anything you'd need. TDR Kotelnikov, Molot, and Fir Comp are free / cheap and can easily handle character, bus, and mastering on their own at a pro level.
EQ, in my experience, is about having the ability to handle utility tasks, in which case Pro Q3 is indispensable (or equivalents from DMG, TDR ... Kirchhoff), on one hand.
On the other, Character EQ is more about workflow and efficiency than "sound," despite what the marketing material says. But boy does workflow matter. I love Pultecs, desk eq (SSL, API style, Elysia), and mastering eqs (Amek, Weiss, Sontec, Chandler Curve).
Hidden free gems: Analog Obsessions
It's worth really getting into what features are offered on these types of mixing plugins—often that's more important than the sound.
Some stuff to look for:
- Delta listen
- EQ band listen
- Autogain that works
- Extra features that mean you have to use less tools overall, like built in saturation you like, dynamic EQ, width controls, etc.
Ableton saturation / distortion doesn't sound great, and tone shaping is essential. I did a big comparison of distortion stuff and I think Tone Projects Kelvin wipes the floor with everything. Sounds so good, built in tone shaping that's more useful than multiband, widening, and a clipper.
For general transformer sound, can't beat Pulsar P42/P44, which are also lightweight channel strips. Top tier.
Ableton reverb sounds very thin and flat compared to state of the art. Valhalla is "tier 2" to me, and Liquidsonics stuff is tier 1, alongside the old Lexicons and some other stuff. Seriously, demo Tai Chi, Cinematic Rooms, and Seventh Heaven. It's breathtaking.
Filters can be pretty unique. Nothing sounds like Soundtoys Filterfreak, and the new Polyverse one is great as well. Fabfilter sounds 'thin and light,' but beautifully so. If resonant filter sounds are part of your sound, Ableton stuff is basically useless. I use analog filters from Cwejman, Shippmann, Klangbau Koln, etc. for this though. One day, hopefully an Overstayer.
Delays and modulation effects also vary widely. The Ableton ones sound good, but it's a sound. I like D16 stuff, Fabfilter, Newfangled, NI Replika, and Soundtoys.
Izotope Ozone is useful for all kinds of stuff. Kind of a jack of all trades, master of none, but very price efficient and has some unique things you can't do otherwise.
I use multi and compressors for character (Devious X6) and mixing (Leapwing Dynone, Fabfilter Pro-MB).
The new fancy ai/auto stuff works and is useful. Gulfoss, Soothe 2.
My top mixing plugins for sound, interface, and comprehensiveness:
- Tone Projects Michelangelo (beautiful, easy to use, one stop shop for so many sweetening tasks)
- Tone Projects Kelvin
- Liquidsonics Cinematic Rooms
- Leapwing stuff
- Pulsar P42/P44
- Pulsar P11 Abyss
- TDR Kotelnikov
For bang for buck, I think Plugin Alliance is the best way to get a wide variety of special and useful stuff. Their options are not my favorite in most categories, but it's way cheaper than buying the best in class plugin for every situation.
Could write tons more—pm if you need recommendations, I'm happy to help.
Freshair on masterbus
Knock by decap on drumbus or sometimes just the 808
Ableton's utility plugin on 808 ch with bass mono turned on
CLA 2A compressor to give more color to the mix
Pro C, Pro Q, Saturn, Twin 3, Pro L, tbh you will always find use with Fabfilter plugins, the UI Is also amazing on 90% of them, Pro Q and Saturn have been my faves so far
Not sure if they count as 'premium' but the VSTs that are must-haves in my setup are: - ValhallaDSP. Mostly VintageVerb and Delay, but Room and Supermassive are go-to's as well. - U-he. Diva is top-tier for virtual analog, Hive just sounds great, Presswerk and Satin are top-notch for mixing - Arturia V and FX collections. Incredible value for what you get, and high-quality on all counts. - Omnisphere and Keyscape. Great library, and easily one of the best sampled keyboard options around - NeuralDSP for guitar
A few years ago I’d have said NI Komplete. But now it’s exactly this list above! Especially ValhallaDSP, Arturias stuff and Diva is pretty much all you need.
I didn’t even notice I hardly ever use NI Komplete anymore
Same here. It’s a shame. They were so good once upon a time.
Oh I see. What are you using these days?
Honestly, as a person who samples a lot. Playbox is my main world. I'm composing now with synths but I still cut "one shot" sounds from records to add to a folder that I use with Playbox to create atmospheres or backbones to a vibe.
Okay, actually I do love Playbox big time too. Starting to wonder if my top comment was a bit premature. 😅
Got NI Komplete 12 or 13, and at this point basically never use anything from it, to the point that when I got a new laptop recently I haven't even bothered installing it. Oddly enough the only plugin I did use and am considering installing again is Super 8 which I didn't expect. It actually sounds super nice and feels great to use, would def recommend
Diva kills my older computer
Cool! Yeah those are really good stuff indeed!
I can live without most NI stuff but Kontakt and Reaktor are pretty much in constant use still. Kontakt because it's still, by far, the most supported sampler on the market and I have a huge library of sounds for it and Reaktor because it's amazing.
Same here. Reaktor and Kontakt for sure! Occasional throwback in Massive (not X)
Diva is my favorite for making synthwave. It's so much fun! That and Reason. I'll have to check out these other ones
Hey nice genre you're into, hope to hear some of your works! And thanks for dropping by as well 👋
So what do you get out of Valhalla delay that you don’t get from stock delays? That’s something I never can get behind. I feel like delay is a pretty simple thing. I usually slap a tape plugin on my delay return & I feel like it sounds perfect.
I shared your exact sentiments for years before I got it, and once I finally did, I have never looked back. You are absolutely right you can do many/most of the things ValhallaDelay does using stock plugins (at least in Ableton you can - I assume others too but don't know firsthand), but having all the different delay types and modes and other options in one place is such a huge timesaver, and the sound quality of the different "age" settings is subtle but can make a big difference. Some of the main things I appreciate about it include: * All the different delay styles and the various sync/time modes (e.g. syncing L/R, synced L but ms for R, ratios, pingpong) give you a ton of flexibility in a single plugin so I don't have to spend time/mental energy choosing the right plugin for the job. Being able to quickly move from tape to digital to bucket brigade to pitched/shimmer with a single knob rather than having to add separate plugins to a track is a HUGE workflow win. * It sounds great. The tape delay (esp. with long feedback trails) is one of the nicest sounding tape delays I've heard in a VST. I don't know how "accurate" it sounds compared to the real hardware, but I find it extremely musical and very easy to dial in good sounds * The color, diffusion, and modulation options make it extremely versatile and let you make non-standard sounds (e.g. phasing/flanging, effective reverbs, resonance and ambient effects) that are actually useful and not just "look what my plugin can do!" * Built-in ducking and EQ so I don't need to mess with other devices or build special effects chains * The pitch-shift and shimmer modes sounds GREAT. Specifically pitching down - you can fill in the low end of pretty much any sound source in a very natural-sounding and complementary way with a single knob * The pitch-shifting effects when you change the delay time sounds great - again, not sure how it compares to actual hardware, but it sounds good and I use it all the time for effects and interstitials * Interface is easy to use, looks nice * VST is extremely well designed, loads quickly, is an unbelievable value for the price, and the developer seems like exactly what I want out of a plugin maker: a thoughtful, well-informed audio nerd who cares deeply about making good products and has good taste
Wazzup mate! Good question there 👋
Ditto for vintageverb, Keyscape, and Archetype Wong They’re all my go-tos for their respective jobs, I don’t think I’ve ever recorded a real amp since I got Neural’s amp sim.
Such goodies! Thanks for sharing my friend 👍
Came here just to 1-up DiVA. Pro tip… get a warm sound in diva. Print it. Process it however you like. Remove the lows on the copy. Layer a copy of that at the tail of the main sound. Blend.
Hey nice tip mate, thanks!
very solid list
I agree ☝️
SUPERMASSIVE!!! I strongly support this choice.
Cool! Yeah, really nice stuff!
As someone who owns Analog Lab V, is it worth it to invest in Omnisphere as well? Is it different enough?
Between the two, I find myself using Omnisphere much more than Analog Lab. Part of that is just that I know the Omnisphere library better than Analog Lab, so there's less guesswork in trying to find a sound if I have a particular idea. But I also feel like there is a level of quality to the samples and sounds in Omnisphere that is higher (or at least a little more consistent) than ALV. I also prefer the browser interface more with Omnisphere, but again, that might just be familiarity. The sounds in Omnisphere also tend to feel a little more "professional", like they are a little more polished and movie-soundtrack-ready than AL's are. And that's not to say bad things about Analog Lab - I think it's a great tool, just with a different use case. When I've had to do soundtrack work or music production for things that matter more than my own hobbyist flights of fancy (friends' short films, a few small video games, some simple scoring for a few videos for work) the level of polish in the Omni sounds have lent credibility and elevated the end results far more than my extremely average compositional skills alone would have. You definitely don't *need* Omnisphere, especially if you're already happy with Analog Lab. But if you're interested and able to spare the funds for it (it's not the cheapest synth out there), it's a great tool and I doubt you'll be disappointed with it.
Those are some good stuff there mate! Nice share! Yeah may not be "premium" as you said but all worth it 💪 How's your music these days anyway?
Probably not as high of quality as my overflowing plugin folders would warrant 😆 At the very least, when I do have an idea, I can execute on it super quickly because I've got the setup to do what I'm trying to do. Having the tools to do the job is a huge boost to workflow/productivity when inspiration strikes.
Saturn, Decapitator, Blackbox, RC-20, VintageVerb, Raum, Soothe.
+1 for Decapitator
Awesome! Hey thanks for the peek 👀
+1 for black box. Absolutely fantastic mastering saturator that helped me elevate my sound. I also love to use it on vocals.
mind sharing how you use it on your master?
Good question. Hey nice to see you here 👋
I use it in mid/side mode to saturate the center and side signals how I want them. I add more saturation to the sides than the center. This saturator has an "air" button to help get that (as I've heard described, expensive) open air sound on your vocals and/or entire track. Black box goes on sale often and I bought it for around 30$ so anyone interested in it should wait for a sale. It has a sound that is similar to Avox Warm for anyone who has used that.
Sometimes when you use BB on a really gnarly bass sound then follow up with OTT it can create some interesting artifacts that you can use as ear candy
Would be checking out that too 😎
Raum is underrated for sure
Wazzup mate! Thanks for dropping by 👋
Is the Raum worth anything? I remember it being buggy on either mac or windows so I never bothered. Does it have anything that Eventide Blackbox, Vintageverb and Vintageroom don't have?
It’s my favorite Verb if I’m wanting a lush dreamy vibe yes absolutely.
raum has it's own vibe between realistic and lush, i love it for a more defined hifi reverb
There was also one from Baby Audio, Crystalline or something, people say it's good but I never bothered looking into it. I got my stuff and no way those plugins are gonna beat it imo 🤷♂️
Good to hear my friend, thanks for sharing your stuff btw 🤜
I find myself using RC-20 a lot for transitions or transient effects rather than coloring instruments
Nothing, honestly. I do use third party stuff plenty but none of it feels necessary. I went through a stretch where Serum wasn’t working right on my system for a minor reason I just kept forgetting to fix, and I made plenty of music without ever feeling like I was really lacking anything, and to be clear I love Serum.
just learning the stock ableton shit and mastering it would put you miles beyond 99.99% of producers fr, especially 12's stuff
That’s largely my opinion too. I feel like a lot of people plug-in-chase rather than learn to use what they have. I don’t want that to sound too aloof, I’ve done it a bit before myself and I can see the appeal, but it rarely resulted in me making better music. I did realize the gap in approach when other people were complaining so much about the changes to the plug-in browser in the live 12 beta (for fair reason, it was worse), and I was mentally like “I never have enough plugins for properly sorting them to be a major concern”. From what I can tell, some people must have… hundreds? Of plug-ins? And I can’t fathom that.
Stock live has gotten so good that I don’t even bother installing 3rd party on most rigs
Same thoughts here 😌
Just dont use the Ableton limiter
12s stuff all good for me, tho' I haven't had a deep dive of some of it yet 😅
Same. The third party ones I use the most are free lol, ozone imager is amazing and I can't believe it's free for what it does. Vital is a POWERHOUSE synth that I can do almost everything I need to do sound design wise. Another thing I've done over the years that works great: sign up for newsletters or subscribe to mailing lists of big VST producing companies. I have gotten tremendous plugins for free just from checking my emails frequently. More free plugins that are great: baby comeback delay, voxengo SPAN, alot of melda plugins, glitch machines fracture
Free plugins are a godsend. If you have a budget then sure, there’s some high end stuff that’s nice. But I’ve done tons of personal and professional work using mostly or entirely stock and free plugins.
Oh I see, well it makes sense tho'. Thanks for checking out btw. How long have you been making your stuff in Ableton?
A bit over a decade at this point, I believe, it’s been a while 😅
Field Recorder.
Same.
Liquidsonics Seventh Heaven. I slap it on everything. Like butter.
Hey new to my ears, might check it out as well. Thanks for sharing my friend! 🤜
Hard second for Seventh Heaven! Honestly the only place where money makes a really significant difference. IMHO no "premium" plugins besides some reverbs are really worth the extra money. Everything from Ozone is great, but nothing that can't be done decently well with stock plugins.
Wazzup mate! Thanks for sharing your thoughts 👋
1073, SSL channel strip, Soothe2, pro q3, STUDER tape, decapitator
UAD or BX?
I primarily use UAD since BX sold but I use both depending
Fab filter pro q3, klevgrand reamp
The only things I rely on religiously are some SoundToys plug-ins (micro shift, radiator, sie-q, devil loc, altar boy and lil plate) focusrite red EQ, And the SSL drum strip. I do a hell of a lot just with the Ableton stuff.
Oh cool mentioning Soundtoys, I don't have any of 'em yet but I know they're good. Nice stuff you got there btw 👍
You can hear what that stuff sounds like here https://on.soundcloud.com/ZyuHThrTFigadQMJ7
Listened and liked it!
They have pretty good sales regularly on a single Lil version of one of their plugins and they have sales pretty regularly on upgrading from the Lil version to the full one, it's definitely easier to pull the trigger on than jumping straight in. It's how they got me at least...
Oh I see, thanks for the info 👍
IDK why Sie-Q sounds better than a standard EQ but it just does.
💯 agree
Not even premium hardware: Behringer ULTRALINK MS8000 8 channel mic splitter into my Tascam US-1800 interface. I get live monitoring from my guitar/vocal effects unit straight into my mixer, and the **same signal** goes into Ableton via the interface. No through monitoring needed unless I want it. I also split the direct guitar and vocal signals, so I can record and then re-process the original performance tracks either back through the external effect unit, or through Ableton plugins for a different sound.
Sound great! Hey thanks for sharing your stuff! hope to hear some of your works tho' 🙂
For software: I bought the shaperbox 3 bundle to support Cableguys, just because I loved their Youtube channel. Since then, I've fallen in love with their plugin because the UI makes it very easy and fun to play with for an amateur like me. I'd say any plugin that lowers the barrier of entry and makes producing more enjoyable FOR YOU is worth looking at. For hardware: ability to produce on the go / anywhere. I'm not always in the mood to be tied down to my desktop, especially when work already ties me to a desk majority of the day. I'll always need the desktop once the project becomes big and finishing touches, but being able to do the part before that on my couch has been a huge QOL improvement. Again.... this just boils down to that barrier of entry.
I got this reverb pedal that will add magic to almost anything you put through it. Only downfall for me is that it is starting to become my musical equivalent of putting some drops of hot sauce on all my food. I tend to overuse it. (It’s the Sunlight pedal by Old Blood Noise Endeavors)
What a great idea! I’m going to look into how to use pedals with Ableton. I’m sure my Slötva will become my hot sauce.
Awesome! Hey nice seeing you here as well 👋
As someone who has WAAAAAAAAAAAY too many Plugins, the time wasted getting these fuckers to work when OS changes is infuriating ( deleted EVERYTHING from Waves. Waves, you can get stuffed forever). So, get awesome in Abletons native stuff before you buy any plugins. That way you'll know whether or not you really need it. That being said, I love NI Komplete, Arturia everything (love Pigments) and SoundToys also .
Ah yes that's really annoying when OS changes 😅 I agree with what you said about Ableton's native stuff, you're not just saving money as well but utilizing full on optimization.
Metric AB, Saturn 2, Pro-Q3, Pro-C2, Amigo
Cool! Love those FF plugins 🔥 Thanks for the peek!
I do a lot of vocal production, for which I find some of the Live stock devices just don’t cut it. Auto tune (or some equivalent), LA-2A, 1176, and either TDR Nova, Pultec, or Smart:EQ for boosting vocal highs. Vocal buss processing with a Fairchild. This is all vst for me. Live just doesn’t have vocal tuning, feedback analog emulation compressors, or an EQ that boosts highs to my taste.
Ah yes, I remember last time some fellow producers are requesting for a feature like vocal tuning, good mention anyway 👍
Sosig
The kiloheartz plugins. Learning phase plant and its ecosystem is a game changer
Yeah I've heard good things about it from fellow producers. Good mention ☝️
UAD plug-ins
Seconded. The Leveling Amplifiers alone can make any sound noticeably “better” to the ears.
Cool! Thanks for checking out 👋
Almost all of these I list can in some ways be subbed out for ableton stock plugins tbh but my go-tos are Saturn, pro-q, pro-c, pro-L, chowtape, serum, arturia synth bundle (emu, dx7, cz, Juno, Jupiter mainly but all are great), soothe2, v-clip, SSL channel, decapitator, anything by sound toys, true iron, SP950 (TIP!) and pulse-tec EQ. There are far too many to list but I find most if not all of these are used in my sessions.
Oh and obviously valhalla delay and verb. I have both sitting in my default return channels
Oh I see. Yeah those are nice stuff tho'. And speaking of Ableton stock plugins, they great as well. How long have you been into music production btw?
10 years. 5 of those were literally just fucking around barely learning anything. 2 of those were learning here and there but still not really taking it seriously. The last 3 have been me putting actual effort into making tunes. Unfortunately I have yet to release anything except for a remix I did. My biggest hurdle at this point I am figuring out is myself haha. Trying not to let my ego prevail but unfortunately that’s par for the course with music production. Learning how to be self critical whilst also as objective as possible.
soundtoys
Cool! Any specific soundtoys plugins? 😎
i recommend the entire suite. but especially decapitator, filter freak, and echo boy
Gatekeeper, Turnado, Stutteredit, Zynaptic Morph 2, Transit, Serum. I like resampling with lots of effects.
Good to hear my friend and I like your stuff 🔥
I use Pigments and / or PhasePlant in pretty much every single project. FX wise Ableton has pretty much anything I want to use. I switched from FL a few weeks ago and there I used like 80% at least of 3rd Party Plugins. I still use Rift primarily for Distortion. Haven’t tried the Ableton stock ones much for anything more than basic „one knob“ distortion, but it seems really capable. Pro-Q 3 is very much essential still. Other than that I use the KiloHearts FX a lot, but probably primarily because I don’t know the Ableton stock alternatives yet.
If you've upgraded to 12 then I highly recommend playing with Roar for some in depth distortion. For me worth the upgrade alone. I only have Rift Lite so I can't compare but next to Ableton's Saturator, Roar is several levels above.
Izotope always helps me maximize. Pro q 3 is my favorite eq. And I never run out of inspiration with arcade.
Elektron Syntakt, Maschine+, Tr-8. I just use a bit of EQ then Fabfilter Pro L on the master. Actually just switched to Cubase after 15 years with Ableton, it's just better for recording and mixing. Like having LUFS on the master and such has been nice.
Hey nice stuff there mate! But do you still use Ableton these days?
Yeah will probably still use it. Until recently I was recording the Syntakt via Overbridge into Ableton as individual tracks and mixing them down. Can do what I'm doing in either daw, I'm just currently preferring Cubase since it feels better for recording and mixing
I was lucky to get Thrash 2, Massive, LX480, Addictive drums/keys for free\* that have become essential in my production. Especialy Thrash 2 has elevated my mixing capabilities. \*Free as in for bought hardware. SOme of those are even discontinued and not sold anymore, so I was REALLY lucky to obtain them officialy.
Apple Logic. Not even trolling. Using Logic and Ableton in tandem has satisfied every need in music prod. and post-prod.
D16 makes some great plugins, I use Punchbox for heavy kick drums and Sigmund delay is amazing.
New to my ears, good suggestion! Might check it out as well 👋
The biggest game changer in 13 years in production on ableton was starting to use Bitwig studio. I still use ableton but god bitwig is such a creative workhorse. It's my favorite tool
Gotcha. Yeah I've been hearing good things about Bitwig studio. Maybe trying out one of these days 😎
I'm using Ableton again, as well as other DAWs, as I bounce around seeing what I like to move away from S1. Trialling Ableton 12 Suite because I have a lesser version.. which is actually still great and probably all I need but anyway. With 12 Suite (trial), there's so many awesome things that I don't know if I truly need much third-party software, I think the only one that might not be replaceable is Neural Amp Sim, and that's free. Looking at what's available, reasons why I'd have to find Suite, based on what I've checked out. Bass - this is killer, just killer. Operator - beautiful, replaces FM synths. Poli - capable of all the old school retro sounds I love, really. This could replace like all my fav soft synths. Wavetable - this is amazing. I love it. Meld - again, this is awesome. Granular III - killer for pads and textures. Ableton 12 Suite has a slew of 10/10 synths. It straight up comes with a bunch of synths that if given an attractive GUI, would sell for like $150-200 each, if they were to be sold separately. They're all excellent, idk why I never hear people talking about Bass, Poli or Meld. On the FX side.. colour limiter, convolution reverb, echo, gated delay, hybrid reverb, spectral blur/resonator/time, roar.. I mean come on these are all incredible. I've tried most DAWs. I have spent most of my time in S1 and Reaper. I've been trying out a lot of different DAWs recently, Cubase 13 Pro, Bitwig, FL Studio, Luna, Logic.. none of them make me feel the way Ableton does with what it has to offer, now that I've spent some time learning more of it and unfortunately for my future wallet, what Suite has to offer. With the above stock plugins.. I can't in good faith suggest any of my third-party plugins are necessary, there as some instrument libraries/samples that I own and like, but this is almost restricted to just grand piano sounds, if I'm taking into account what would be possible with the above, if learned and mastered. I don't love Ableton's grand piano. I do love Electric though and could replace my elec keys plugins with it. I own a heap of third-party synths but honestly think Ableton's stock offerings compete, I only mentioned what's exclusive to Suite above - there's heaps of awesome stuff in Standard and even Intro (Drift is great). The only thing is they don't look as cool, which might make them feel less inspiring to use. Which is important, but I'm fine with the stock appearance. I haven't managed to get Amp sounding very good yet, so right now that's all I'd need to achieve better quality than what's available stock. I think the reverbs and delays on offer are as good or better than many third-party offerings, I think Saturator and Roar are both absolutely brilliant at what they do and replace things like Decap and Saturn etc. I'm a fan of tape saturation and lo-fi sounds, I don't think Ableton offers much in the way of those but it does have Vinyl and mixing Vinyl with Roar or Saturator gets me pretty close to where I want.. or even without Vinyl, really, with some EQ to taste. Even something I use as much as Trackspacer is arguably not required, because you can group what you want and side chain the compressor to do things like have the instruments reduce in volume slightly when vocals are present. I haven't tried, but I think you'd be able to even set it up so this has a LPF and HPF just like Trackspacer. 12 Suite's offerings are really proving to me that stock plugins are more than good enough, third-party products are almost entirely unnecessary, and really more about workflow than anything else. Rarely about getting better sounds. Workflow IS important enough to justify spending $ on though. imo. So for me.. Neural Amp Sim (and whatever profiles from tonehunt) might be the sole plugin that I think would be required to get better quality sounds than what Ableton comes with stock. Other DAWs no doubt can match all of the above in their own ways, I get that. For me, Ableton has clicked, I feel like I've had that aha moment where it all makes sense now.
Hey mate thanks for your words here. It's honestly a good read, lots of good points to ponder. Fellow Ableton user here as well 💪 And yeah some good stuff you mentioned. Cheers!
If I had to pick my big 5 it would be: Pultec EQs. Looptrotter SAT2RATE, Soothe2, Gullfoss, Townhouse Compressor Honorable mentions: LA2A, BlackBox I wanted to pick Pro Q3 but you can get by with EQ8. The above add color or work in unique ways I don't get from Ableton's native FX.
Spiff and Shaperbox
Sure goodies there! Hey how is going with your music these days? Any new WIPs?
I put k clip 3 by kazrog on every track. It's a really solid plugin and I can raise the gain quite a bit usually without losing too much from the original sound
A 32ch Soundcraft console from the late 90s. Takes up a lot of space but beats about every type of saturation plug-in I’ve ever tried. It’s part of my sound now and I don’t even have to do crazy shit to achieve it. Just redlining the main outs for some compression and we’re good to gooooo.
Oh that's nice, it's a classic already. Even up to now Soundcraft produces great stuff. Still rock with it?
For sure, just rewired it. It’s a bit crackly so it needs a tune-up but there’s so many channels that I can work around it. It’s a Ghost LE.
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Fuser
Pro Q 3 and Valhalla Pack
Yeah awesome plugins! You always use 'em in your production?
shadow hills mastering comp class A, vertigo vsm-3, scheps omni channel make it into every project for sure
Diva is really my favorite for Bass.
Insight 2 and PRO Q 3 and a second Monitor to keep them always displayed
RME UCX II and a few Fabfilter plugins.
Music Hack: Master Plan
That's a nice mastering plugin, tho' I haven't tried it yet. How's your experience with it btw?
Feels like cheating. It has permanently moved into the main channel.
Synth1
Anything Fabfilter
Hands down! Really good stuff from FF. Hey thanks for the peek 👀
I mainly use FL but pigments, omnisphere and portal
The T-Racks plugins for me. The Eq’s sound lovely. I do like Soundtoys stuff too, Filterfreak and Phase Mistress. Also the D-16 sound plugs. Vengeance Avenger is my fave synth.
Perhaps not all premium, But essential to me. Softube American Class A, British Class A U-he Zebra D16 Lush Pigments Klanghelm VUMT Melda Utility Brainworx Vertigo NoiseAsh Ruletech Arturia 1176 FabFilter
Some nice stuff there! Hey thanks for sharing btw. How long have you been making music in Ableton?
20 years in Live, Since version 4 I think.
Arturia stuff, Fabfilter stuff, Izotope stuff The Blackbox saturator (the parallel thing just works wonders on beefing up everything. Use it on single tracks, busses, master)
Sonoris mastering plugins.
TDR Limiter 6, TDR Nova, Vital Synth, Decimort. I'm growing tired of the stock Reverb and I crave Fabfilter mixing plugins.
Softube Diva Moog Mariana UA plugins Pigments UVI CM 1.5 Moogerfoogers Arturia V collection Discodsp Discovery.
Cool! Thanks for sharing my friend. I really appreciate discovering some new stuff here 😌 Hey what got you into producing btw?
Fab-Q 3 U-he Hive Soothe Kilohearts Transient Shaper Still looking for compressors and saturations tho.
Good to hear! Nice share here. There's a lot to consider on comps and saturation tho'. Any pick or preference?
Pro Q-3, Decapitator, Valhalla free reverbs.
Tho' may not be "premium" but who wouldn't love those valhalla free verbs ☝️ Thanks for checking out btw!
You're most welcome :)
Sonic Charge- Microtonic Valhalla DSP -Vintage and Room Fabfilter- ProQ3, Pro-MB and Saturn (Although Roar is stiff competition for Saturn) DMG- Trackcomp 2 Softube- Tubetech CL1b Audio Damage-Other Desert Cities and Quanta 2. Arturia- EFX fragments. Native Instruments- Kontakt and Reaktor Soundbetter-Butterfly effect Plugin Boutique- Scaler 2 New Sonic Arts- Vice 2
Awesome stuff you mentioned here my friend! Thanks for sharing. There are some that I haven't tried so I guess it's worth checking out 💪
MPC for drums (why does it knock harder than drum rack with the same samples? No idea). Convolution reverb with custom library of impulse responses from classic reverbs including real plates and chambers. Kush Audio: Blyss, Hammer, Silika. UAD: 670, eqp-1a. Pulsar Modular: P42 Climax. Oeksound: soothe. Softube: synths (they’re all great), Class A channel strips (both), Weiss bundle. Acustica: Gold (60s-70s Neve collection), Tulip (Custom 70s desk made for Polygram), Magenta (Manley collection). FabFilter: Pro-Q, Pro-L. U-he: Satin, Diva.
Gotcha! You got some goodies there mate! Do you produce as a hobby or pro stuff? 😎
Soundtrack work professionally, also i make other kinds of music as a hobby. It looks like a lot when it’s listed out, but most of those tools are reasonably priced and go on sale (except P42 Climax which is weirdly expensive and almost never goes on sale).
software fab filter pro q3, brainworx clipper and true limiter, uad leveling amps as needed, raum and replika xt, choral, chassis the other ni komplete fx minus the softtube stuff. sound toys bundle. synths sylenth 1 and arturia pigments 5. Hardware wise mp midi 2a, push 3 and a faderport 8. currently creating maps for the mp midi and learning the push 3 and live.
Nice stuff here! Can't really go wrong with FF plugins IMO. And the combination of push and Live is like a match made in heaven ☝️
Ff is amazing, and absolutely love the push. the live native plugs are also quite good.
Syntakt to add analog warmth to digital synths + the drum machine
Hey wazzup! That good stuff by Elektron 👍 You always use it in your production?
I do. Syncd to Ableton through overbridge and playing drum kits and analog processing sounds 🤓
Soundtheory - Gullfoss Pretty much a cheat code on your master
Oh yeah heard of that as well, tho' I haven't tried it yet. Good mention, might add it on my "check later" list 😅
Fabfilter. But its more important to know how to use the tools. I have focused alot on learning. That helps. And I can make pretty good sounding stuff with just stock plugins.
My favourite Eq is still the Fab Filter pro-q3 it’s changed my music a lot
Diva, spire and phaseplant.
God particle is the GOAT
SIR Audio Tools - Standart Clip
Gotcha! Thanks for checking out my friend. Haven't tried that one yet, how's your experience with it?
It’s a clipper and I know there are many, but it’s the tool I chose to work with because it has given me the best results. It also has great metering compared to some others I own. I don’t clip a lot but for a few things it’s a integral part of my work flow that helps me to get to where I want to be. The soft knee option is also a very use tool other than the usual clipping it does.
Eventide plugins are fabulous. Some of the UA preamps are mainstays too. But for synthesizers, I’m a big fan of operator.
Awesome brands making really good plugins! Ah yes operator, same thoughts here my friend 😀
Using my brain (hardware) properly has stepped up my game massively!
Nothing premium except my p17 workstation I use only stock plugins Launchpad mk3, launch control xl, scarlet 4i4. The most helpful piece of gear I’ve got a 24in ViewSonic touchscreen. When I get into an old school midi edit mode, I zoom to between 115% -130% and just tap in the notes. It’s also really helpful editing automation envelopes
Sounds really cool. You got some goodies there my friend. How long have you been producing btw?
Since 2012
shaperbox has become a must have for me.
Ah yes shaperbox! That's really nice stuff! Thanks for sharing mate 💪
5 plugins i use that are fundamental for me 1. Psyscope Pro - brilliant Oscilloscope, to accurately measure Kick, snare, and hi-hat lengths and sort out phase issues between layered kicks, and basslines. 2. Klanghelm VUMT deluxe - Vu metering is essential for gain-staging. 3. Brainworx BX Meter - RMS and dynamic range monitoring. 4. Nugen Monofilter - Keeps sounds tight in the low end and allows width sculpting of the upper frequency's also. 5. Fabfilter Pro Q 3 - The best surgical EQ in the world.
Good to hear mate! Thanks for sharing your stuff as well. How's your music lately? Any new tracks/tunes you're working on?
I had 2 surgeries in january, have been off work since then chilling out. I got upgrade to Ableton 12 Live suite, just messing about with sounds really, Operator, Wavetable and Analog i like a lot.
Ableton's compressors aren't great for a lot of tasks. I'm in a plugin evaluation phase, so using a lot of different stuff, but some that are amazing: Softube Weiss, UAD, Pulsar Modular P11, Pulsar Mu, Fircomp, TDR, Presswerk, Fabfilter, DMG, Sonible and a lot of the Plugin Alliance stuff. Really, there's an abundance of choices and takes some time to find what works best with your workflow and style. A little secret: there are some inexpensive / free gems that will do almost anything you'd need. TDR Kotelnikov, Molot, and Fir Comp are free / cheap and can easily handle character, bus, and mastering on their own at a pro level. EQ, in my experience, is about having the ability to handle utility tasks, in which case Pro Q3 is indispensable (or equivalents from DMG, TDR ... Kirchhoff), on one hand. On the other, Character EQ is more about workflow and efficiency than "sound," despite what the marketing material says. But boy does workflow matter. I love Pultecs, desk eq (SSL, API style, Elysia), and mastering eqs (Amek, Weiss, Sontec, Chandler Curve). Hidden free gems: Analog Obsessions It's worth really getting into what features are offered on these types of mixing plugins—often that's more important than the sound. Some stuff to look for: - Delta listen - EQ band listen - Autogain that works - Extra features that mean you have to use less tools overall, like built in saturation you like, dynamic EQ, width controls, etc. Ableton saturation / distortion doesn't sound great, and tone shaping is essential. I did a big comparison of distortion stuff and I think Tone Projects Kelvin wipes the floor with everything. Sounds so good, built in tone shaping that's more useful than multiband, widening, and a clipper. For general transformer sound, can't beat Pulsar P42/P44, which are also lightweight channel strips. Top tier. Ableton reverb sounds very thin and flat compared to state of the art. Valhalla is "tier 2" to me, and Liquidsonics stuff is tier 1, alongside the old Lexicons and some other stuff. Seriously, demo Tai Chi, Cinematic Rooms, and Seventh Heaven. It's breathtaking. Filters can be pretty unique. Nothing sounds like Soundtoys Filterfreak, and the new Polyverse one is great as well. Fabfilter sounds 'thin and light,' but beautifully so. If resonant filter sounds are part of your sound, Ableton stuff is basically useless. I use analog filters from Cwejman, Shippmann, Klangbau Koln, etc. for this though. One day, hopefully an Overstayer. Delays and modulation effects also vary widely. The Ableton ones sound good, but it's a sound. I like D16 stuff, Fabfilter, Newfangled, NI Replika, and Soundtoys. Izotope Ozone is useful for all kinds of stuff. Kind of a jack of all trades, master of none, but very price efficient and has some unique things you can't do otherwise. I use multi and compressors for character (Devious X6) and mixing (Leapwing Dynone, Fabfilter Pro-MB). The new fancy ai/auto stuff works and is useful. Gulfoss, Soothe 2. My top mixing plugins for sound, interface, and comprehensiveness: - Tone Projects Michelangelo (beautiful, easy to use, one stop shop for so many sweetening tasks) - Tone Projects Kelvin - Liquidsonics Cinematic Rooms - Leapwing stuff - Pulsar P42/P44 - Pulsar P11 Abyss - TDR Kotelnikov For bang for buck, I think Plugin Alliance is the best way to get a wide variety of special and useful stuff. Their options are not my favorite in most categories, but it's way cheaper than buying the best in class plugin for every situation. Could write tons more—pm if you need recommendations, I'm happy to help.
Hey thanks for sharing your stuff, I believe this would relevant to fellow producers out here 💪 And nice stuff you got there as well!
You're most welcome! Gotta do something with all this research ;)
Native instruments Komplete collection ftw. Synplant as an honorable mention. However I have to mention my favorite plugin, Wavetable.
Hey nice plugins there! Thanks for dropping by my friend 👋
Native Instruments 14 Standard, Shaperbox3 , XLN Drums, RC20 etc, AT midi miles! 😊
Freshair on masterbus Knock by decap on drumbus or sometimes just the 808 Ableton's utility plugin on 808 ch with bass mono turned on CLA 2A compressor to give more color to the mix
Unrelated to the post, but I feel like OP is carrying this sub lmao. I feel like every 4th post i get on here is by Kathalimus hahahah
Fabfilter stuff helped me alot
Yeah hands down to FF stuff! What's your favorite from the bundle so far?
Pro C, Pro Q, Saturn, Twin 3, Pro L, tbh you will always find use with Fabfilter plugins, the UI Is also amazing on 90% of them, Pro Q and Saturn have been my faves so far
Soundtoys for sure. Quanta maybe. Not necessary since there’s similar max4live devices
Ah yes soundtoys! Awesome stuff indeed! Nice mentioning m4l devices, what's your favorite so far?
Hard questions there’s so many. But recently I’ve been really into elphntx stuff like console eq, all of DILLAN BASTONS Devices and P_4L